Preparation of a high surface area zirconium oxide for fuel cell application

Stable and high surface area zirconium oxide nanoparticles have been synthesised by means of the hydrothermal method. The Brunauer-Emmett-Teller results show that a high surface area of 543m(2)/g was obtained in the hydrothermal process, having a high porosity in nanometre range. The hydrothermal method was applied at 120 degrees C by using an autoclave with a Teflon liner at an ambient pressure for 48h. High-resolution scanning electron microscopy shows the different morphologies of zirconia nanoparticles, which could be categorised as one-dimensional and zero-dimensional, as they had a high crystallite orientation, which was also confirmed by the X-ray diffraction (XRD). The mixture of two types of cubic phases in one sample was obtained from XRD and confirmed by the zirconia nanostructure, showing the stable phase of fluorite, which has full cubic symmetry (Im-3m), and also an Arkelite zirconia nanostructure, showing the stable phase of fluorite, which has full cubic symmetry (Fm-3m). The XRD results also show the different structure orientations of face-centred cubic and body-centred cubic in one sample.